


Little Runaway & The Streets of New York

by Splittergheist



Series: SaphaelWeek2017 [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Disney, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Oliver & Co, Bisexual Isabelle Lightwood, Demiromantic Raphael Santiago, F/F, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lesbian Rosa Santiago, M/M, Magnus Luke and Alec are over 21, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Pansexual Simon Lewis, Physical Abuse, Saphaelweek2017, Trans Rosa Santiago, if the 1980's are historical, the rest is younger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 21:12:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12141231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Splittergheist/pseuds/Splittergheist
Summary: This is a Disney!AU for Saphael Week 2017, Day 2. More specifically, this is a Oliver & Co!AU. I based it loosely on the movie, and the movie was loosely based on the book. But is has a few references to the animated movie with the cat and the dogs.The end has gotten a bit angsty, I have to admit, I am sorry.It's basically a lot of queer kids and horrible parents, and some 1980's feeling. Some.





	Little Runaway & The Streets of New York

 

Simon feels lonely. Living in an orphanage really is no fun, when you’re almost 16. The only advantage he has, is the fact that he looks like 18. Maybe 19, if people are generous. Or bad at guessing. Or, simply, if they don’t care enough. And, in the year 1985, who exactly cares about a teenage boy, running around in worn-down clothes, pick-pocketing here and there? Exactly. Nobody.

Except, maybe the guy at the hot dog booth. Yeah, he does.

After his only friend Clary gets adopted, Simon decides, enough is enough, and runs away. But the streets of New York are brutal, if you have no idea on how to navigate them. Simon’s young life almost ends abruptly, as he runs head-first into a drug-deal negotiation - it was an accident, really - but another teen drags him out of sight, before something can happen.

**“Are you insane, idiota?!”** His voice is like a warm blanket, matching the bronze tone of his skin, Simon thinks while staring into these insanely gorgeous- **“Hey, I’m talking to you.”**

The teen, who’s called Raphael, takes him to the place he lives at. But what seemed to be an empty warehouse from the outside, is actually the hide-out of a small gang of queer teens and young adults. Leader of that group? An Asian glamrock punk, who goes by Bane. Only Raphael knows his full name and he keeps it a secret. The guy is dating another guy, named Alec, who Simon believes to be some sort of goth. Alec, or Alexander, how Bane calls him sometimes, ran away from home too. Together with his sister Izzy, the young man decided one day, he couldn’t hide his true self anymore, and told his parents, that he wasn’t intending on ever getting a girlfriend. In a fit, their mother threw him out, but his sister went with him, knowing that if they didn’t accept him, they wouldn’t accept her either, as she is exactly the same. Or, almost. She has a thing going with Raphael’s sister Rosa, who is here because of two things: 1. Because her brother couldn’t bare the thought to leave her at home when he left; and 2. Because her parents keep calling her their son, eventhough she isn’t. Her older brother protects her as best as he can, while leaving her enough room to decide things herself. She is beautiful, Simon thinks.

Luke, a local black cop, keeps tabs on the group, but mostly to keep them out of unnecessary trouble. The moment, he meets Simon for the first time, he seems to immediately develop some sort of father-son connection, even if Simon protests harshly against it. It’s okay. Luke has time. And there’s no rush.

To keep themselves alive, the whole gang does small heists, always keeping the risk low. But, without a warning, this changes.

Raphael comes into the hide-out one day, and Simon immediately wants to hug him tightly, but he holds himself back. Bruises on his arms, his knuckles bloodied, and his left eye black and blue, the teen collapses onto the next mattress. Bane is immediately at his side, so is Rosa, and they start patching him up, while Bane talks to him in quick-paced Spanish. Simon has no chance to understand what is going on. Not, before Raphael and Bane fall into a heated argument and the punk slips back into English.

**“No way. You won’t go back there!”** he yells, pausing his efforts to clean up a cut on Raphael’s forearm. The teen replies. Nothing with which Bane agrees, it seems. **“You know damn well, that he won’t hesitate. Next time you walk into that door, he’ll kill you.”** Silence for a moment, while the young man avoids Bane’s gaze. His jaw is tensed up, he has his arms crossed in front of his chest, as tight as possible. His sister has stopped treating the bruise on his cheek and stares at him as well. The next thing he says, comes in a bitter whisper. Although Simon doesn’t understand a single word, he can read the way Bane flinches and then freezes mid-action, the way Rosa’s eyes widen and she gasps, the way that Izzy clenches her fist, and how Alec sighs deeply, before leaving the room. Simon can watch the oldest of them collecting all his strength, before replying, as quietly as possible: **“Well. I won’t let him. He might be your father, but he has passed up that father card long ago. You owe him nothing.”**

Simon thinks about this for a long time that night. How he does not have any parents and always called that a bad thing. But seeing Raphael, being beaten by his own father and Alec and Izzy being more or less disowned by their mother… Maybe he doesn’t have it so bad, he thinks, before he falls asleep.

The next morning, Raphael wakes him up, everyone seems to run around in panic, packing up. **“What’s going on?”** he asks the other, too quickly catching up on that panic in the air. The other hesitates and ruffles through his jet black locks. **“My father,”** he murmurs. **“My father is the boss of a dangerous gang. And my brother Pablo just warned me that they’re coming here.”** Simon freezes. **“What do they want?”** he asks, not sure if he actually wants to hear the answer. **“Me. Or all of us dead.”** Yep. Not knowing the answer would’ve been nicer.

They make it to the train bridge.

Someone stops them there. Someone that causes fear to sparkle in Raphael’s eyes, instead of joy. Simon hates that someone immediately. **“And you thought, you could run away forever?”** the man says with a thick accent. **“No, Raphael, not anymore.”** Some Spanish words follow and the teen next to Simon flinches at every single one of them.

And that is enough to make the runaway orphan snap.

Charged with anger, he stomps forward, barely avoiding to trip while balancing over the bridge. **“I don’t know who the hell you are, and briefly, I don’t care, but don’t you dare to yell at Raphael like- like what you say is true! It isn’t, you jerk, and I will fuckin fight you, if you don’t–”**

Raphael can only watch in horror, as his father draws a gun and aims it at the boy with the glasses. The boy, who doesn’t even know him that well, and still defends him as if he were his brother. The boy he watched sleep at night, sometimes, slowly drifting away himself. The boy that managed to fill this big heart of his, instead of only taking from him.

He hears the shot and looks away. He hopes, Simon knows, he was loved. He hopes it didn’t hurt too much.

A body hits the water under the bridge, and Raphael feels tears stinging in his eyes. ‘You will pay for that,’ he thinks, full of heartache and full of pain, way too much for this young heart to take, and opens his eyes to finally prepares to end this man, when-

He can’t believe his eyes.

**“Simon?!”**

A figure stands on the bridge, shaking, on the edge of a mental break down, it seems.

How can that-

From the other side of the bridge another silhouette approaches, slowly lowering a gun. When the person reaches Simon, the street lantern nearby illuminates them both.

**“Luke?!”**

The cop holds the shaking teenager in his arms, hugs him tight, not even thinking of letting go. Raphael sees the others standing nearby, equally as shocked as he himself feels like. When he finally unfreezes, he doesn’t notice how he runs towards them. Only when his arms wrap themselves around the other, he can slowly realize, what just happened. That Simon isn’t dead. That Luke shot Raphael and Rosa’s father. That- that it is finally over.

They sit on the rooftop of their hide-out together when the sun sets. Simon and Raphael, close to each other. **“What you did on that bridge,”** the latter eventually says, **“Nobody has ever done that for me before. Not that or something in that fashion.”** Simon hesitates, stays silent for a moment more. **“He would’ve killed you. You… You would’ve died to stop him.”** That’s, when Simon opens his mouth too. **“To protect you,”** he corrects. For Raphael it doesn’t make a whole lot of a difference, but he doesn’t protest.

**“You know what is- I mean. Do you- I–”** Raphael pauses, tries again. **“I don’t know how to- how to say that, but,”** scared fingers touch the other’s hand, **“bu-but I was never- I was never in love before. And, suddenly, you came around. And I- _Dios_ , sorry, I–”** His gaze fixed on his knees, Raphael doesn’t notice how the other closes in, until he touches his cheek, warm fingertips running over his skin. Immediately, the boy turns his head, surprised, yes, actually shocked. Simon’s beautiful brown eyes are _this_ close to him. So close, that he can feel the other’s breath on his lips.

**“Can I kiss you?”**

Raphael feels a butterfly made out of warmth and excitement flap its wings inside his chest. His eyes flutter close in response.

**“Yes.”**

And then there are lips. So soft and so loving, it takes his breath away. Raphael can’t believe that he really gets this fairy tale dream first kiss, he thought he never wanted anyway. The sun sets on the horizon and he melts into the kiss, like ice next to a volcano.


End file.
